Cixian Lv

In today’s complex organizations, a single leadership style rarely meets diverse managerial demands. Authoritarian–benevolent leadership (ABL), an ambidextrous model rooted in Chinese culture, is expected to enhance innovation performance when benevolence and authority are both high, yet its mechanism remains unclear. Integrating social exchange and conservation of resources theories, we propose that ABL builds resilience that sustains innovation performance, and test whether power distance orientation (PDO) conditions this pathway. Two-wave data from 51 Chinese teams (397 employees) were analyzed with multilevel path modeling and response surface analysis. ABL predicted innovation performance (γ = 0.711, p < 0.001; between-level R² = 0.745), and the cross-level product of the ABL-resilience and resilience-performance paths was 0.259 (95% CI [0.047, 0.471]). Team-mean resilience and performance were closely linked (r = 0.98), so the product is best read as an index of a cross-level pathway; it was comparable at low and high PDO. Performance rose along the congruence line (slope = 0.992) and turned downward along the incongruence line (curvature = −0.933), with high-high teams outperforming low-low by 1.357 points. These findings suggest that ABL’s effectiveness appears to depend importantly on the congruence of its dimensions, whereas the exploratory resilience pathway did not differ significantly by PDO.

In today's complex and dynamic organizational environment, a single leadership style is often ineffective in addressing diverse management needs. Authoritarian-benevolent leadership (ABL)—an ambidextrous leadership model that blends benevolence and authority and is rooted in Chinese culture—is expected to be a positive factor in improving employee behavior and enhancing employee innovation performance when benevolent and authoritarian leadership are simultaneously high. However, existing research is still unclear about the inherent mechanism of this influence process. This study, based on social exchange theory and conservation of resources theory, explores the cross-level influence path of the two dimensions of ABL on employee innovation performance in the Chinese context. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data from 52 work teams and 403 employees. The results showed that ABL had a significant positive impact on employee innovation performance. Employee resilience plays a mediating role between the two; Power distance orientation (PDO) negatively moderates the relationship between ABL and employee resilience. That is, under the condition of low PDO, ABL has a more significant positive impact on employee resilience.

Social robots are increasingly being integrated into school and home settings to support children’s development. However, their effectiveness in fostering children’s social and emotional learning (SEL) remains insufficiently understood. To address this gap, this study presents a meta-analysis of 66 empirical studies comprising 166 effect sizes and 3468 participants. The findings indicate that social robot interventions produce an overall small-to-moderate positive effect on children’s social and emotional competence. Moderator analyses identified robot role as the only statistically significant moderator of intervention effectiveness. None of the other examined moderator variables showed statistically significant between-group differences. Nevertheless, some descriptive patterns were observed in the estimated effects, with relatively larger effect sizes for cartoon-like and physical robots, individual interaction methods, and generative AI-enabled robots, as well as for longer interventions. Among child characteristics, relatively larger effect sizes were observed for older children, children with special development needs, and those from developed countries. However, these numerical differences should be interpreted cautiously, as they were not supported by statistically significant between-group tests. They therefore do not provide sufficient evidence that these characteristics systematically moderate intervention effectiveness, but may indicate patterns worthy of further investigation. Overall, this study synthesizes the growing evidence base on social robot interventions and provides a basis for identifying potentially relevant intervention characteristics for future research.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) has become increasingly central to educational policy and lifelong development, while advances in robotics have opened new possibilities for supporting socio-emotional competencies through human–robot interaction. Despite the rapid growth of robot-assisted SEL research, this field remains fragmented, with limited understanding of its intellectual structure, thematic foci, and evolution. To address this gap, this study conducted a scientometric analysis of 241 publications indexed in Web of Science using bibliometric methods. Results indicate a steady growth trajectory, with research concentrated in a small number of core countries driving international collaboration. Influential publications and co-citation patterns reveal a strong foundation in autism-related interventions and child-centered social skill development. Thematic mapping shows that motor themes are dominated by soft skills, autism, and interaction design, while emotion recognition and affective computing form technically mature but specialized streams. Foundational concepts such as human–robot interaction and artificial intelligence remain central yet theoretically evolving. Emerging links between robotics, STEM, and project-based learning suggest ongoing pedagogical expansion. This study maps the intellectual and thematic structure of robot-assisted SEL, showing how robots are emerging as mediational agents in hybrid learning systems while revealing uneven integration and misalignments between technological capabilities and pedagogical foundations.

Parent–child discrepancies on educational expectations have a significant impact on the holistic development of children, which is crucial for building sustainable educational ecosystems. Based on 7080 samples from the 2019 OECD Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) conducted in a Chinese city, this study uses the ordinary least squares model and propensity score matching to estimate the causal effect of parent–child discrepancies on educational expectations on children’s social and emotional skills—core competencies for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)—and further employs the bootstrap method to test its mechanism. The results show that parent–child discrepancies on educational expectations have a significant negative impact on children’s social and emotional skills, with stronger effects observed among boys and 15-year-olds. The parent–child relationship and test anxiety play a chain mediating role in this relationship. The results suggest that to advance the goals of sustainable education, parents should set reasonable educational expectations and pay attention to nurturing their children’s social and emotional skills to foster holistic development within supportive family microsystems.

Migrant children’s discrimination perceptions directly affect their cultural adaptation in the city of influx. In response to migrant children, cities in China have issued relevant urban education policies such as the different-location college entrance examination policy. This study aims to investigate the impact of China’s urban educational policies on the relationship between perceptions of discrimination and acculturation among migrant children. The research sample for this paper was drawn from nine cities that pioneered the policy reform, and a total of 1436 questionnaires were collected. This study analyzed the data using multiple regression analysis and mediation effect tests. This study reveals the following: (a) Migrant children’s educational policy identity has a significant positive impact on their acculturation, whereas their perception of discrimination has a significant negative effect on their acculturation. (b) As the influence of urban educational policies increases, the negative effects of discrimination perceptions on migrant children’s school cultural adaptation, community cultural adaptation, and customs and language adaptation will all diminish. To further explore the facilitating effect of urban educational policies on the cultural adaptation of migrant children, this study proposes recommendations for the household registration system, college entrance examination admission system, and child protection system. This paper not only puts forward policy recommendations for cities of inflow but also provides a Chinese research horizon for the urban cultural adaptation of migrant children in cities of inflow.

This study examined the relationship between the urban dialect ability and academic performance of migrant children, as well as the role of school integration between the two. This study collected data from 1687 migrant children aged 5–15 from 28 county-level units (counties, districts, cities) in China, sourced from the 2010 China Education Panel Survey (CEPS). The research results indicate the following: (1) the urban dialect ability of migrant children has a significant positive impact on their academic performance. (2) School identification, peer–peer engagement, and peer acceptance, as the three dimensions of school integration, play a mediating role between the urban dialect ability and academic performance of migrant children. Overall, this study provides theoretical support and policy recommendations for promoting school integration and academic performance development for migrant children.

While there have been studies on the relationship between higher education institutions and regional economic growth, few have delved into the economic impact of decentralized higher education institutions at the county level and associated reginal disparities in terms of socio-economic development. Utilizing the data of the Chinese universities that started to establish their campuses in counties since the year 1999, this study investigates the influence of rural university campuses on county-level GDP and industrial composition spanning from 2001 to 2020. It also delves into the temporal dynamics and regional discrepancies associated with this impact. The findings of this study show that (a) rural university campuses wield a notable positive influence on the GDP of their respective counties, particularly shaping the structure and ratio of secondary and tertiary industries; (b) the magnitude of this effect is contingent upon the duration of campus establishment and growth, intensifying over time; (c) variations in this impact are evident across the eastern, central, and western regions of China, where there are vast socio-economic differences. This study underscores the significant spillover effect of higher education decentralization on county-level economies and advocates for the pivotal role of rural university campuses in propelling county-level economic progress. Additionally, it proposes coordinated policy support from national, regional, and rural university campus authorities; the establishment of requisite support structures; and the comprehensive consideration of regional nuances.

Online learning, as a pivotal element in modern education, is introducing fresh demands and challenges to the established teaching norms across various subjects. The adaptability of students to online learning and their sustained willingness to engage with it constitute two pivotal factors influencing the effective operation of online education systems. The dynamic relationship between these aspects may manifest unique traits within different academic disciplines, yet comprehensive research in this area remains notably scarce. In light of this, this study constructs an Adaptive Structural Learning and Technology Acceptance Model (ASL-TAM) with satisfaction towards online teaching as the mediating variable to investigate the impact and mechanism of online learning adaptivity on continuous usage intention for students from different disciplines. A total of 11,832 undergraduate students from 334 universities in 12 disciplinary categories in mainland China were selected, and structural equation modeling was used for analysis. The results showed that the ASL-TAM model could be fitted for all 12 disciplines. The perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and system environment adaptability dimensions of online learning adaptivity significantly and positively affect satisfaction towards online teaching and continuous usage intention. Satisfaction towards online teaching partially mediates the relationship between online learning adaptivity and continuous usage intention. There were significant differences in the results of the single-factor analysis of the observed variables for the 12 disciplines, and the path coefficients in the ASL-TAM model fitted for each discipline were also significantly different. Compared to the six disciplines under the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) category, six disciplines under the humanities category exhibited more significant internal differences in the results of the single-factor analysis of perceived usefulness and the path coefficients for satisfaction towards online teaching. This research seeks to bridge existing research gaps and provide novel guidance and recommendations for the personalized design and distinctive implementation of online learning platforms and courses across various academic disciplines.

The benefits and limitations of utilizing collaborative and competitive activities within and between groups to facilitate learning are well known. Typically, these two concepts are viewed as mutually exclusive approaches, where one is favored over the other in the classroom. However, utilizing an approach that takes advantage of the strengths of both while minimizing each one’s weaknesses, could greatly enhance students’ learning. This approach is called coopetition. Because of the dominance of collaboration and competition, the number of studies investigating coopetition in learning environments is rather limited. Therefore, this article reviews the extant studies using a coopetitive approach to provide a fuller understanding of this concept. Altogether, 33 articles were retrieved and analyzed using a grounded constant-comparative approach. As a result of the analysis, three categories of research topics emerged: (a) organization of coopetition, including zero-sum coopetition and social comparison coopetition, (b) medium and coopetition, including coopetition conducted in conventional face-to-face settings and computer-mediated settings, and (c) application of coopetition in education, which covers multiple areas such as cognitive, affective, and social domains, as well as educational management. The review discusses each category in detail, highlighting implications for future educational research and practice.